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To those of you have given input to helping me try to understand about the BoM helping one become nearer to God, Thank you. Some of it makes sense and some of it doesn’t really help me but that’s OK. Now if I can just get past the things that have helped push me away maybe I’ll better understand. Thank you again. mlbrowninsc wrote:Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I look forward to getting know everyone and join in with the conversations here. I am planning on going to church this weekend. I will be sure to post my feelings about my first trip to my SC ward. I am looking foward to seeing the difference between wards on different sides of the country. And I would like to know the answer to the questions posed above as well. Can I be a Mormon and have a coffee here and there, not go to the temple and have a wife that is not a member? We shall see.
Welcome,
I’m getting in this conversation a little late and I think what I say has been said by others already.
Being a Mormon is a state of mind, it is how you want to identify yourself. Others will identify or lable you differently but how you feel about yourself is what is important.
Can you drink coffee and be a Mormon? Sure, some people will call you a Jack Mormon. If drinking coffee is the biggest of your worries then you are in pretty good shape. My feelings on the Word of Wisdom are moderation although for my wife’s sake I follow the letter of the law. Coffee and alchoholic drinks in moderation and without being addicted to them have been found in some studies to actually be good for you. I can’t say the same thing about tobacco.
Can you have a wife that is not Mormon? You bet. I look beyond the teachings about the sealing power and priesthood authority. I find it hard to believe a loving Father would deny familial relationships in Heaven to those that haven’t been sealed. Do the numbers. My TBM also has some problems with denying the family relationship in the eternities to her non-member family.
Not go to the Temple. I would take that one real slow. Once you go to the Temple your husband-wife relationship/dynamic will take some drastic changes. Yes, you can still be a Mormon and not go to the Temple.
Please help me in my struggle to understand. What is in the Book of Mormon that is not in the Bible that will help me get nearer to God?
PiperAlpha wrote:Does anyone use iPads and have any tips for blogging on this site? I sometime find the Safari browser limited in accessing the windows to edit and quote posts.
No tips. I have the same problem. That’s why I usually wait until I’m at my computer to read the forums.
Utah. My first experience with Utah was when my wife, daughter, and I went to Salt Lake City to attend the temple for the first time. When I saw a cigarette tossed out of the car in front of me I realized that there really wasn’t mythical perfect place called Zion. My next experience was many years later and after my disaffection was increasing. I lived in Ogden for less than a year but I got a number of impressions.
Utah enforces the Word of Wisdom thus making it hard to exercise your agency but will let you kill yourself on a motorcycle by not having a helmet law.
If you aren’t LDS or don’t want to be identified as LDS you make sure everyone knows by your actions. You either are or you aren’t.
There are a lot of non-traditional medical practices.
You can’t escape the Mormon culture, it’s everywhere and in your face.
The pioneers, especially the handcart pioneers are worshipped.
There does seem to be a hierarchy or royalty. Hard to pin this down, just an impression.
Honor and sustain the law is a suggestion when it comes to driving.
Covert racism. Sometimes not so covert.
If you weren’t born in the covenant you aren’t as good.
If you aren’t from Utah but lived in the “mission field” you aren’t as good.
If you didn’t go to BYU you aren’t as good.
If you don’t follow the word of wisdom you have a “problem”. Well, maybe “problem” with anything is church wide.
There are probably more. I might think of more later.
I find keeping the sabbath day holy a commandment that is too easy for Pharisaical interpretation. For instance, a bishop once gave a talk on keeping the sabbath day and gave many examples of things we should not do and the reasons why. One was listening to the radio because if we listen to the radio someone has to work at the radio station. I took it a step farther and reasoned that we couldn’t attend church on Sunday because the police had to work to make sure our streets were safe. I also thought about the electric plant workers ensuring that our buildings have electricity on Sunday. The Temple Preparation course did not prepare me for the temple. It was a review of many gospel principles. Even the last lesson which was supposed to be about the temple was mostly we can’t talk about. When the stake president interviewed us he told us to read the creation in the Pearl of Great Price, I don’t remember if it is in Moses or Abraham. I found the ceremony to be bizzare and still find it strange. I felt more spiritually fulfilled after my baptism than I did after attending the temple.
SamBee wrote:Thoreau wrote:I read it about 1980 for a philosophy class in college. My superficial take on something I read over 30 years ago is that he was flat out nuts.
Sometimes you have to be nuts to get anywhere. Didn’t people think Thoreau and Emerson were nuts at the time?
Oh yeah, that’s for sure. I think we are all a little off. There is no such thing as normal.
I just took a look at Amazon since I lent out my copy many years ago. I would like to read it again, if I recall and from looking at it it was a pretty easy read. Don’t feel like putting out what Amazon is asking for it, especially the ebook version.
I read it about 1980 for a philosophy class in college. My superficial take on something I read over 30 years ago is that he was flat out nuts. One thing that it helps me with is my mouth. I used to have a really foul mouth. Smoking is not an issue. I do have some addictive behaviors. My biological father and his father were alcoholics, my two brothers have had marital problems related to alcohol and drug use. I very easily could have gone the same way. The things the church teaches about family relations help me. I admit that me being a better person because of the church could also be attributed to other outside influences but for me the outside influence was/is the church. I went through the same questions a few weeks ago but with much less detail. My conclusion was that church helps me to be a better person by reinforcing the good and reminding me about things I things I shouldn’t do. I need to go to church because I really start slipping when I don’t.
